Finally after all this preamble we get to start moving things around and playing back and stopping and startingwhich is why we gotten the Soundtrack Pro in the first place.So let's go to the beginning and there's that playhead works exactly the same as the playhead inside the Final Cut.The beginning is always on the left, the end is always on the right and this red marker is called the end of song marker.Soundtrack will always output from the beginning of your project to the red dot unless you set an inner and out,we'll talk about that later, its called the cycle region and everything pass the red line does not get exported.

It indicates the hard end of what we are doing.We could if we wanted to grab this end of song and drag it just in case you want to know, can we drag markers?Yes we can and there'll be training a little bit later on markers themselves.How do we get to the beginning?We go right down here to this toolbar.See this button right here that says, 'Go to the beginning'.This button right here says, 'Go to the end'.So if we go to the beginning and then click our Play button, it starts to play.This takes US back one frame at a time, notice our timecode readout right here and this takes us forward one frame at a time.

If I wanted to jump to a specific time, I could simply type in the timecode I want to jump to and the playhead jumps there.I am double clicking to select the time, typing the number I want to jump to and it jumps there.This button takes me back to the beginning and starts to play.This red button has got sort of a multi personality and motion that turns on key frame recording.Here it starts us recording based upon whatever track is armed.So generally keep your cotton picking (ph) fingers off the red button because that's the record button.

The problem is I would like some keyboard shortcuts for some of these things and so we got them,if you wanted to play, Spacebar, to stop, hit the Spacebar again.If you want to go to the beginning, hit the Return key.The Return key takes you to the beginning and the Spacebar plays, but this is very cool if you hold the shift key downand hit Shift+Return, Shift+Return takes you to the beginning and starts playing automatically.If you want to go back one frame at a time, if you want to go back two seconds at a time, the left arrow.

Well why is it two seconds?Why isn't like a second and three quarters?That's what these vertical lines indicate.These are called beat lines.We can also move around using the up and down arrow keys just as it does inside Final Cut.The up and down arrow keys take you to the previous in the following shots.So the up and down arrow keys take you to the beginning at the end of each clip,but the left and the right arrow keys, don't do what you think you're going to do.If you use the right arrow key, you don't move one frame to the right or the left arrow key one frameto the left instead you jump to each one of these grey lines.

These grey lines are the bar line.This is a musical notation that talks about beats and bars and we can control that up here when we talk about the timing.We'll talk about these during music when we're talking about the creation of music inside Soundtrack,but for right now we aren't moving an individual frame at a time,we are moving a measure at a time with the left and the right arrow keys.Not to panic you can change this if you want, but for right now,we are just going to accept the fact that it is moving one measure at a time.

If you wanted to move one frame at a time, you hold the option key down.Option+Left arrow takes you back one frame at a time.Option+Right arrow takes you forward one frame at a time.And if you want to zoom in or zoom out, we can do Command+Plus Command+Minus which centers on the playhead.You can also use Ctrl+Left arrow and Ctrl+Right arrow which does the exact same thing, Ctrl+Left arrowand Ctrl+Right arrow would zoom you in or zoom you out, centering on the playhead.

So we turn to go to the beginning, Spacebar to play, Spacebar to stop, Shift+Return to go to the beginningand play and its very cool, you ready for this?The J, K, and L keys work exactly the same.If I type the L key, I go in real time, take the L key twice, I go at double speed, K stops, J goes in reverse,'JJ' goes at double speed but, we can even down shift.If I hit the L key three times and then hit the J key, it steps me down with double speed,I hit the J key again, it steps me down to standard, normal speed.

K stops, K and L, slow motion forward, K and J, slow motion back.Just as in Final Cut I've got multiple ways of moving around.I can use the Spacebar to play and stop.I can use the J, K, and L keys to go fast forward rewind, fast forward, forward, fast rewind, fast for'ard whatever it is.You go quickly in either direction the J, K, and L keys and just keep hitting L two, three times will speed up as it goes.Hit the J key, it will slow L down, K to stop.We can use the up and down arrow keys to move between shots.

We can use the buttons at the bottom or we could click and jump to playhead or if we want the playhead to go.But we need to be inside the Scrubber Bar up here because down here the playhead will jump, but you'll also be selecting clipsand you run the risk of selecting a clip, it's better to get the habit of moving the playhead up here.If like me, you are one of these people that wants to grab the playhead and drag it, you end up with this weird thingwhich we've never seen before inside Final Cut.

That weird thing is called the cycle region.What a cycle region does is it acts like an innerand out inside Final Cut indicating the beginning and the end of what we want to work with.When this button down here is on and I play, see how it loops over and over again.That's because looping is turned on.If I turn this off I'll just make the cycle region smaller so it happens quicker.It doesn't loop through the cycle region.

So if you wanted to say here the same effect over and over so could adjust equalization or spot in a sound effect.You would draw a cycle region and you turn on this looping function.We'll talk more about cycle regions later but to get rid of it, just as you get rid of the in and the out inside Final Cut,you get rid of the cycle region the same way.It's Option+X, you just click and hold to draw it, which happens whenever I am trying to move the playhead and scrub it backand forth I draw the cycle region by mistake, Option+X makes it disappear.

It's better to drag the playhead by clicking on this yellow triangle at the topbecause if you're holding the yellow triangle no cycle region gets drawn.So now you've got enough of an orientation you can navigate inside the global view.You can move the playhead around by dragging it.You can use the arrow keys, you can use the J, K, and L keys.You can use the Spacebar, Return and Shift+Return.There's lots of different ways that we can navigate around and play and stop all inside Soundtrack.

But there's just a couple of more things I want to show you in the interface before we move into actually starting to workwith audio and the last one is this field right here which is timecode, talk about that, next.

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Released

2/29/2008

The soundtrack can make or break a video project, and it's easier than ever to get professional-quality results using the latest software. In Soundtrack Pro 2 Essential Training, Apple Certified Trainer Larry Jordan shows how Soundtrack Pro 2 can be used to set up, record, edit, mix, and output professional soundtracks for media projects. He teaches the best post-production techniques for Final Cut Pro 6 projects and audio files, and covers everything from setting up preferences and repairing poor audio, to working with filters and mixing. Exercise files accompany the course.